The present invention relates generally to improved methods and apparatus for displaying frozen foods or other products displayed in freezers, dairy products and other items typically displayed in coolers, and like products requiring refrigeration displayed in refrigeration units to potential customers. More particularly, the present invention addresses techniques for creating a bank of freezers, coolers or other refrigeration units with advantageous lines of sight and improved clarity of viewability.
The warehouse shopping experience has become both increasingly common and popular. A typical store providing such an experience has a relatively large floor plan or square footage. It also stocks a wide range of products which are often sold in bulk at reduced prices. As a result, a shopper instead of making separate trips to a department store, a drug store and a grocery store, for example, may advantageously make a single visit to his or her nearest Sam""s Club(trademark) store, for example. Rather than buying a four pack of toilet paper or a pound of hamburger at a premium per unit price, the shopper might buy a twenty pack of toilet tissue or a ten or more pound package of hamburger at significantly lower per unit prices.
In such environments, to the end of meeting customers"" demands for frozen foods and other refrigerated items, it has been previously known to create relatively large banks of freezers in which glass display doors are arranged side by side with product display shelving arranged behind the doors and additional restocking shelving arranged above them to store products used to restock the freezers. This arrangement of shelves above the freezers facilitates rapid restocking of the freezers. With the restock storage arranged above the freezers, the height of the bank may be about 15 feet high so that it is impossible for a customer to see over the units. In these arrangements, forklifts to deliver product for restocking can enter at one end of each freezer, cooler, or refrigeration unit with an open area between the shelves and behind the doors which is wide enough to allow the forklifts to travel into the freezer or cooler to deliver restock items to the appropriate location.
A number of problems with such arrangements have been identified by the present inventors. Where a prior art arrangement of freezers employs several large rectangular freezers or coolers, one unit may block a customer""s line of sight so that the customer does not become aware of other buying opportunities if he or she does not make a conscious effort to go up and down each aisle or row. Also, a limited number of end doors and end product locations are provided by existing rectangular arrangements which limits a store""s ability to showcase to potential customers an item or items in high traffic, high visibility areas. Further, depending upon lighting conditions, a very long bank of glass doors all arranged in a straight line may produce a high level of glare when a customer attempts to look down the aisle at an angle so that missed sales opportunities result.
To the end of addressing such problems while preserving the advantageous aspects of existing arrangements as to storage of products for restocking, ready access to shelving for restocking and the like, a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a relatively small footprint bank of freezers or coolers having multiple curved or angled walls of freezer or cooler doors. The overall bank of freezers or coolers advantageously has improved lines of sight. When compared with typical prior art approaches, it also includes an additional number of freezer, cooler, or other refrigeration units access doors which may have the higher visibility traditionally only provided by end units at the end of a row or aisle. Also, the angling of the walls of the freezers and coolers help to funnel customers, from a focal point of customer interest at the end of an aisle, down the aisle so that increased customer traffic and increased sales result. These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the drawings and the Detailed Description which follow.